1. Expansion of
slavery

2. New land
•From 1846 – 1848, the
United States fought a war
with Mexico over
disputed land along the
southern border of Texas.

3. New land
• The Treaty of Guadalupe-
Hidalgo that ended that war
gave the U.S. land that now
makes up the states of
California, New Mexico,
Arizona, Utah, and Nevada.

4. Old problem, new answer
•The question with regard
to that new territory
would be whether or not
slavery could exist there.

5. Old problem, new
answer
• One answer came quickly, as
David Wilmot, a Democrat
member of the House of
Representatives from
Pennsylvania, wanted to make
“an express and fundamental
condition” that slavery would
never exist there.

6. Old problem, new
answer
•While the Wilmot
Proviso was never
enacted, it certainly
pushed the discussion of
slavery to a new level.

7. california
• By 1850,
enough people
had moved to
California for
it to apply for
statehood.

8. california
• California threatened
to break that balance
between slave and free
because the people
wanted it to be a free
state.

9. passage
• President Millard Fillmore
agreed to sign each piece of
the Compromise of 1850 into
law, which was the only way
the compromise would pass.

10. passage
• This decision was made by
Stephen Douglas, a Senator
from Illinois, who had taken
power away from Henry
Clay, who wanted to pass the
compromise in one big bill.

11. passage
• The Compromise of 1850
was the last appearance on
the national stage for Clay,
Calhoun, and Webster, who
had taken a fledgling nation
into adolescence.

12. passage
• The Compromise of 1850
accomplished very little, as
Southerners were not satisfied
with the result and Northerners
were outraged, primarily by the
Fugitive Slave Act, which
inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe
to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin.